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Frederick the Great reveal post / discussion post 8
In the last several months, as anyone who reads this DW knows, ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mildred_of_midgard and selenak and I have been part of this quite frankly amazing Frederick the Great fandom, and I sort of assumed that the two people in this fandom who actually knew anything, mildred and selenak, were going to write fics for Yuletide, and I (who know nothing except what they've told me in the last several months) was going to awesomely enjoy reading them. In fact, mildred wrote a Fredersdorf fic for selenak's prompt which I betaed, but then mildred's medical issues got bad enough to interfere with her writing fic (making the beta edits would have involved a substantial amount of rewrite), and she wrote a post lamenting she wasn't going to be able to produce any yuletide fic. Meanwhile, I had two fics that I was pretty sure were from selenak, and I thought it would be a shame for her to write us fic and for her not to get any :(
So then mildred and I had this (very paraphrased) conversation (mildred_of_midgard has her own account here, and she has promised to reproduce the actual conversation in comments to this post):
me: You know, we should really write something for selenak! Now that I've read what you wrote about Fredersdorf, I think I could take a stab at her Fredersdorf prompt, if you edited and otherwise helped me out with historical stuff and also if you don't mind it being way more about music than something you would write.
mildred: YES GOD YESand also oh you sweet summer child thinking you know enough to write this. [Mildred was far FAR nicer than this in real life.] For starters, here are 3500 words [really!] of things I know for a fact you don't know about Fredersdorf.
me: ...I was clearly overoptimistic. But I can work with this. Um, also, all the creativity-generating bits of my brain are already being used for my assignment, so can you also come up with an idea for the fic and also answer all my historical questions?
mildred: Sure! While I'm thinking about this, have 2k more words of historical grounding! Ok, and here are some ideas too. In fact, here's a whole plot for you!
me: Great! *writes 4k words of the plot*
mildred and me, more-or-less in unison: You did all the hard parts!
Then mildred fixed all my extensive historical errors and was fortunately able in between various medical woes to add various parts like the entire Wilhelmine subtheme and the entire last scene, and we deleted some of my words, and then I wrote some more paragraphs about music at her request and edited some of her stuff. I estimate that I probably ended up writing ~4.5k of the final fic, and mildred ended up writing ~ 2k of it (does that sound about right?) Of course that does not count the... I have no idea how much historical consultantcy stuff mildred ended up writing in the end, but I imagine it was significantly upwards of 10k :P And of course she wrote the detailed endnotes :D It also does not count all the words written in comments to the google document where we argued things like that Fredersdorf should be more zen than mildred wanted to write him and less zen than I wanted to write him :)
Although mildred and I mostly agreed on things, I had final veto power (and I did wield it a couple of times), so any remaining problems should be thought of as mine :) I'm very curious, though, as to how evident the collaboration was, and how evident the seams were, as I think mildred and I have very different writing styles, but it went through enough editing passes and discussion that I suspect much of the differences got at least somewhat smoothed out?
Counterpoint for Two Flutes
mildred_of_midgard and selenak and I have been part of this quite frankly amazing Frederick the Great fandom, and I sort of assumed that the two people in this fandom who actually knew anything, mildred and selenak, were going to write fics for Yuletide, and I (who know nothing except what they've told me in the last several months) was going to awesomely enjoy reading them. In fact, mildred wrote a Fredersdorf fic for selenak's prompt which I betaed, but then mildred's medical issues got bad enough to interfere with her writing fic (making the beta edits would have involved a substantial amount of rewrite), and she wrote a post lamenting she wasn't going to be able to produce any yuletide fic. Meanwhile, I had two fics that I was pretty sure were from selenak, and I thought it would be a shame for her to write us fic and for her not to get any :(So then mildred and I had this (very paraphrased) conversation (
mildred_of_midgard has her own account here, and she has promised to reproduce the actual conversation in comments to this post):me: You know, we should really write something for selenak! Now that I've read what you wrote about Fredersdorf, I think I could take a stab at her Fredersdorf prompt, if you edited and otherwise helped me out with historical stuff and also if you don't mind it being way more about music than something you would write.
mildred: YES GOD YES
me: ...I was clearly overoptimistic. But I can work with this. Um, also, all the creativity-generating bits of my brain are already being used for my assignment, so can you also come up with an idea for the fic and also answer all my historical questions?
mildred: Sure! While I'm thinking about this, have 2k more words of historical grounding! Ok, and here are some ideas too. In fact, here's a whole plot for you!
me: Great! *writes 4k words of the plot*
mildred and me, more-or-less in unison: You did all the hard parts!
Then mildred fixed all my extensive historical errors and was fortunately able in between various medical woes to add various parts like the entire Wilhelmine subtheme and the entire last scene, and we deleted some of my words, and then I wrote some more paragraphs about music at her request and edited some of her stuff. I estimate that I probably ended up writing ~4.5k of the final fic, and mildred ended up writing ~ 2k of it (does that sound about right?) Of course that does not count the... I have no idea how much historical consultantcy stuff mildred ended up writing in the end, but I imagine it was significantly upwards of 10k :P And of course she wrote the detailed endnotes :D It also does not count all the words written in comments to the google document where we argued things like that Fredersdorf should be more zen than mildred wanted to write him and less zen than I wanted to write him :)
Although mildred and I mostly agreed on things, I had final veto power (and I did wield it a couple of times), so any remaining problems should be thought of as mine :) I'm very curious, though, as to how evident the collaboration was, and how evident the seams were, as I think mildred and I have very different writing styles, but it went through enough editing passes and discussion that I suspect much of the differences got at least somewhat smoothed out?
Counterpoint for Two Flutes
Re: One admiring reader comments
I was thinking Wilhelmine--she's alive for another nine months after Fredersdorf dies, and you did read their correspondence. But perhaps he was far too worried about her at this point to be talking about his problems.
It is true that, unlike when Henricus Minor dies, he can't very well expect his siblings to care--but don't we have that quote where HM dies and one of his officers was trying to console him when he got the news, and--oh, yeah, I just went and looked at the passage you gave us, *and* he puts "my dear Hendrich is dead" in a postscript to an official order to General Tauentzien. I just feel like when Fritz is grieving (about anyone except Katte), everyone has to hear about it. People certainly notice when his dogs die, and I seem to recall he locked himself in his room for a day to cry when Alcmene died. And while Catt has no idea who Fredersdorf is, everyone else around Fritz did, and that never stopped Fritz from telling Catt about Katte anyway. But no, no mention of Fredersdorf in Catt's memoirs, even though Fredersdorf died a scant two months before Catt showed up.
Oh well. I just wish I had data. If you do ever run across any, please do pass it on.
Re: One admiring reader comments
This being said: I‘m reminded that in the entire Goethe/Schiller correspondance, Goethe regularly gives his regards to Mrs. Schiller or asks how she is etc. while Schiller not once as much as mentions Goethe‘s life partner Christiane, whom Goethe would eventually marry when Schiller was already dead, despite on more than one occasion staying at Goethe‘s house, where she was running the household and basically serving him dinner. The difference being that Mrs. Schiller was a born Charlotte von Lengenfeld and a legitimate wife, while Christiane was living in openly unmarried love with Goethe and a born Demoiselle Vulpius, former flower manufacturer worker.
(Then again, Wilhelmine has no problem bringing up Quantz or singer X or musician Y or Algarotti or the dogs in her letters, both to ask after or to report news on.)
It occurs to me that if Fredersdorf dies just two months before Catt shows up, that might be another explanation as to why Fritz is suddenly so chatty about Küstrin to someone he barely knows. His usual confidant is gone, whether or not they had a fallout before his death, and Küstrin is something he can legitimately talk about since despite nobody bringing it up to him on their own initiative, everyone knows it happened. What I mean is: he can voice trauma and grief there - and later cry for dead siblings and for poetry - while also being upset about and crying for Fredersdorf at the same time, just not mentioning him to Catt.
Tangent here: I‘ve had a chance to browse through some of Catt‘s memoirs since you‘ve made it possible for me to, and it strikes me that before AW‘s death, Fritz seems to engage in almost Stalinist revision of history concerning him. He tells Catt that his incognito trip to Straßburg was just with Algarotti as a companion (and Catt even adds a footnote that he later found out AW was along as well but can‘t explain why Fritz didn‘t mention that). At another occasion, when talking about FW as a father, he says while FW was harshest to him, he was harsh to the other siblings as well „except for Prince Henry who was always his favourite“. Which isn‘t just an omission, as with the Straßburg trip, but a direct lie. (Both because every single primary and secondary source agrees AW was always the favourite, and because FW barely seems to have noticed Heinrich existed - as I said in another comment, he‘s listed in the plural of „the princes“ in FW‘s instructions as how his sons were to be raised, not singled out for an individual comment either good or bad.)
Now, as soon as he hears the news about AWs death, Fritz does talk about him a lot (though again with some revised history about how it‘s solely the evil advisors who came between them and he was planning on abdicating in AW‘s favour after the war), but what I‘m getting at is that Fritz is quite capable of editing himself even while Catt has the impression of the King being frank with him and confiding in him.
Re: One admiring reader comments
Lol, unreliable editor is unreliable. I'd forgotten you had the audio version, that's right. Well, I've sent
By the way, I must brag. For those of us whose French isn't up to hundreds of pages, I wrote a script that, if you give it the volume and page numbers you want, will download the correspondence from the Trier website and create a file where all the letters are interleaved in French and Google translated English. It ends up looking like this:
------------------------------
1. A LA PRINCESSE WILHELMINE.
Cüstrin, 1 novembre 1730.
Ma très-chère sœur,
[Original French letter.]
Le Prisonnier.
Translation:
My dearest sister,
[Google translate does the best it can.]
The prisoner.
------------------------------
2. A LA MARGRAVE DE BAIREUTH.
Berlin, 6 mars 1732.
Ma très-chère sœur,
[Original French letter.]
Ma très-chère sœur,
Votre très-humble et très-fidèle
Frideric.
Translation:
My dearest sister,
[Google translate does the best it can.]
My dearest sister,
Your very humble and very faithful
Frideric.
I have a $300 12-month free trial, so am taking requests if anyone wants a particular correspondent or correspondents.
The difference being that Mrs. Schiller was a born Charlotte von Lengenfeld and a legitimate wife, while Christiane was living in openly unmarried love with Goethe and a born Demoiselle Vulpius, former flower manufacturer worker.
Huh. So you're saying Fritz can cry openly over his family, his generals, Keyserlingk, Rothenburg, Jordan, Duhan, and the like, and his dogs, but not Fredersdorf, because he's not supposed to care that much about a commoner?
(Then again, Wilhelmine has no problem bringing up Quantz or singer X or musician Y or Algarotti or the dogs in her letters, both to ask after or to report news on.)
It occurs to me, if Fritz doesn't actually mention Fredersdorf to Wilhelmine, maybe it's another Keith & Katte situation where she doesn't approve of her brother's boyfriends taking his attention away from her? I mean, misogyny and classicism aside, we know how Fritz felt about Émilie and Voltaire about Fredersdorf, and we know Wilhelmine and Fritz might be the scandal that never happened, so...
I‘ve had a chance to browse through some of Catt‘s memoirs since you‘ve made it possible for me to
I'm glad sharing the folder with you has been useful to you! I will keep uploading my acquisitions there, and if there's something you want but can't access, let me know and I'll see what I can do.
Responded to your Catt remarks in another comment, but yes, there is a lot of revisionism, by both Catt and Fritz.
Re: One admiring reader comments
Possibly. Not least because Fredersdorf falls out of several parameters - he's not a bravely fallen soldier (legendary commanders have been known to cry about those before), he's not a Faithful Old Retainer (of whom Fritz could say "he practically raised me" - I'm thinking also of MT having her governess buried in the Habsburg vault, the only non royal to be there, full stop, that kind of gesture), and, pace 1926 editor, he's not a sort of son ("I practically raised him"). I'm not sure there was an official vocabulary available in 1758 for what Fredersdorf had been to Fritz. (Unless you do what Voltaire did and put it sarcastically.) Certainly not to a new Calvinist Swiss reader. To a sister? Hm. "The friend of my heart is dead" or something like this sounds vaguely period appropriate, but then again, Fritz' 1757/1759 basically go "thanks for rooting for me, you're the best!", "Brother Wilhelm totally deserved it, whatever you say!", "Okay, did not see his death coming, but you know, evil advisors" to "want to commit suicide with me?" to "don't die, please don't die!"
It occurs to me, if Fritz doesn't actually mention Fredersdorf to Wilhelmine, maybe it's another Keith & Katte situation
Also possible, though less likely in that she's not likely to have encountered them at the same time with living in Bayreuth and only seeing Fritz very occasionally. We know she did meet Fredersdorf during her Berlin visits because he was in charge of arrangements and it's mentioned in the letters, but that was before seeing Fritz himself, so it's not like her Fritz time was limited due to Fredersdorf also being there (which which had been the case with Keith & Katte). Then again, feelings are irrational, so who knows. Ziebura in one of her books says Wilhelmine had no chill when it came to Fritz, anymore than he did re: the relationships important to him. (Hence also all the "clearly, he doesn't love me anymore!" near the end of the memoirs and the upset letters to brother AW asking him for help and mediation even before the big Fritz outburst apropos the MT meeting .)
Re: One admiring reader comments
Oh...Friiitz.
Wilhelmine had no chill when it came to Fritz
Yeah, I was thinking that we know she complains a lot that he doesn't write to her enough and he's forgotten her, so I think she'd be perfectly capable of holding a long-distance grudge against the Prussian Pompadour. Whether she did or not, idk, but I wouldn't rule it out just because they hardly saw each other.
The first letter Trier has between them that isn't one of the smuggled Küstrin letters goes basically like this: "Hey, sis, I'm marrying this woman I despise, but the good news is, it means now I'm allowed to write to you! [I assume we have letters starting from this date because they didn't have to be destroyed upon reading any more.] But omg, you keep listening to all this malicious gossip and accusing me of forgetting about you. I will NEVER forget you. Stop being so gullible!" And this was March 1732.
But yeah, 1758 was an emotionally topsy-turvy year for Fritz, and maybe he just really couldn't talk about Fredersdorf directly to anyone. That would be incredibly sad, if so.
Re: One admiring reader comments
The "Want to commit suicide with me?" letter. Explanation: Wilhelmine had made the mistake of sending a depressed letter earlier because she was already very sick. This was a mistake, because:
Erfurt, 17 September 1757:
Your dear letters, dearest sister, are my only consolation. Could heaven reward you for so much nobleness and heroic spirit! Since my last letter, misfortune has been piling up on misfortune. It seems that fate wants to unload all its angry indignation on to my poor state.
I still would bless heaven for its goodness if he only gives me the favor of falling with the blade in my fist. If this hope deceives me, then, you'll admit to me, it would be too hard, I would have to crawl in the dust of this gang of traitors, who are now able to dictate their will to me through their successful crimes. Dearest, incomparable sister, how can I help feelings of revenge and bitterness against all my neighbors, among whom is not one who would not have helped to speed up my fall and did not take his share of the robbery and rejoiced? Can a prince survive his state, the glory of his nation, the honor of his own name? No, dear sister, you are of too noble a mind to reccommend such cowardice to me. Should the precious privilege of freedom be less dear to the crowned heads of the eighteenth century than it once was to Roman patricians? And where is it written that Brutus and Cato would pre-empt princes and kings in high spirits? (...)
Gratitude, my intimate attachment to you, our tried and tested friendship, which never denies itself, all these oblige me to be completely frank to you. No, splendid sister, I do not want to keep any of my steps secret from you, I want to inform you of everything. My thoughts, the heart of my heart, my resolutions, everything. You will find out in good time. I will not rush anything, but on the other hand it will also be impossible for me to change my mind. After the Battle of Prague, the situation of the Queen of Hungary seemed to be of concern to her, but she has powerful allies and still significant sources of aid; I have neither. An accident alone would not throw me to the ground, I have already survived so many: the defeats at Kolin and Jägersdorf in East Prussia; the unfortunate withdrawal of my brother - that would be AW getting court martialed - and the loss of the magazine of Zittau, the loss of all my Westphalian provinces, the misfortune and death of Winterfeldt, the burglary in Pomerania, the Magdeburg and Halberstadt, the infidelity of my allies. And in spite of all these blows, I rise up against the misfortune, so that I can believe that my attitude is still free of any weakness to this day. I am determined to fight against the calamity, but at the same time I am determined never to subject my name and that of my house to shame.
Now you know everything, dear sister, which is basically what is going on in my soul; there you have my general confession. As far as you are concerned, incomparable sister, I do not have the heart to dissuade you from your resolutions. Our way of thinking is quite the same; impossible to condemn feelings that I myself have every day. Life was given to us by nature as a boon; as soon as it is no longer such, the contract expires, every person becomes masters of putting an end to their misfortune at the moment they think it is advisable. An actor who stays on stage when he has nothing more to say is whistled out. The unhappy is pitied by the world only in the first moments; soon it becomes tired of its compassion; then the invective of men sits in judgment, and finds that all that has happened to the unfortunate happened due to their own fault. They are condemned, and finally despised. If I also leave myself to the ordinary course of nature, the sorrow and my poor health will shorten my days in a few years. That would mean surviving myself and cowardly condoning what is in my hands to avoid. Except for you, there is no one left in the wide world who still ties me to this world; my friends, my dearest relatives rest in the grave – in a word: I have lost everything. If your decision is the same as mine, we end together our misfortune, our miserable fate. Those who remain in the world may then come to terms with the worries that will weigh on them, and take on all the heaviness that has been pushing our shoulders for so long.
This caused a prompt reply:
For God's sake, calm down, dearest brother! Your military situation is desperate, but there is a prospect of peace. For heaven's sake, banish all dark thoughts. Do you want to kill so many subjects who place their only hope in your person?
(She also wrote to Voltaire and told him he needed to write some philosophical Fritz-cheering up letters poste haste.) Nearly a year later:
Camp at Skalitz, 4. August 1758. (After he got Heinrich's letter About how she's likely to die and the news about AW will finish any hope she has):
As I hear, dear sister, you are in a very bad state. You can imagine how great my concern, my sorrow, my despair is. If I have ever demanded a proof of friendship from you, if you have ever felt love for me, so I now ask you to put it to the test. Keep yourself alive, and if it is not for your own sake, think: it happens for a brother who worships you, who sees you as the friend of his heart, as his sole comfort. Remember that of all my surviving relatives, you are the one most dear to me. I will find ways and means to get rid of all my enemies; I will, if heaven pleases, save the state from danger; but if I lose you, it is irreparable, and you yourself thrust the dagger into my heart. Everything in the world can change, but the loss of a person like you is an incurable devastation. By all that you hold dear: seek to overcome your own great sorrow, and also to overcome the one we share; but above all, keep yourself alive! My life is tied to yours; without you it becomes unbearable to me. You are my consolation, only to you alone I can open my heart wholeheartedly. Yes, dear sister, either you know me badly, or if you know me, you will gather all your strength to recover. You will appease your worries, you will defeat your body and do everything for your health.
Don't you worry for my sake. You know that business never goes smoothly; but I assure you, you shall receive good news about our war operations. I'm fine and will be fine if I only hear about your improvement. But if I receive bad news from Bayreuth, I will be crushed by my sins.
Re: One admiring reader comments
Also, wow, the tables are turned. I can't stop thinking of Wilhelmine recording that she and their mother were the only thing that motivated Fritz to live after Katte's death. Now he's trying to use himself to motivate her to stay alive. Unfortunately, that doesn't work as well with tuberculosis as with PTSD. :/
Man. Fix-it fic for everyone. :-(
Re: One admiring reader comments
Maximum angst. I mean, Wilhelmine's method of venting and self therapy - secretly writing memoirs and not secretly writing operas, complete with giving the one with a killed mother to Mom at her birthday - was definitely less damaging than Fritz' methods but those memoirs were a ticking time bomb. Though I can understand why she didn't go back to them for a rewrite post 1746/1747, when she was reconciled with Fritz and had made up with her husband. (They really end rather abruptly mid first visit with the new Würtemberg in-laws, just after Wilhelmine has deduced the Margrave is cheating on her with Marwitz, and there's no indication that this was a planned ending.) Best not go through that time again, etc; I'm also glad she didn't destroy them, because then where would we be? But it's a good, good thing Fritz never read them.
I can't stop thinking of Wilhelmine recording that she and their mother were the only thing that motivated Fritz to live after Katte's death. Now he's trying to use himself to motivate her to stay alive.
That's why I had them both remember in different stories that they promised each other to never ever die. Incidentally, Lehndorff, who didn't know Wilhelmine very well - just through her Berlin visits in the early 1750s - but of course had heard about her, reports the news of Hochkirch, EC's brother Franz' death, Keith's death and Wilhelmine's death arriving at EC's court pretty much all at once, and his entry offers a pen portrait/mini obituary for all of them from his pov:
Prince Franz, our Queen's brother, has remained on the Hochkirch field. She has been told the news by Count Finkck and is devastated. He was the youngest in her family and entered our - i.e. Prussia's - service early, since he was trained under the eyes of his cousin the Duke of Bevern in Stettin. He was with his regiment in Königsberg in der Mark. He was an able officer, dutiful in service and brave. Tall of figure, he had an ugly face marked by smallbox scars, and he stuttered so badly that you could hardly understand him.
The greatest lost is that of Marshal Keith. He's entered our service ca. 1748 and received 10 000 Taler salary by the King. He had an arresting face, was interesting company and always got invited to the intimate suppers the King held. He didn't value splendor and magnificence very much and gave nearly all his income to his mistress, a Finnish woman named Eva. She had an excellent figure, a quick mind and graceful behaviour, and she fancied an expensive life style. While she used his horses and his cook, he used a public carriage and had his food brought to him from a small cookshop. In our army, he experienced some slights. He could only express himself badly in German, and he was accused of handling his operations too slowly. The late Prince of Prussia loved and appreciated him. His older brother, the Scottish marshal, who is a very different man, was wood into our service by him.
That same evening, Princess Amalie received news of the death of the Margravine of Bayreuth via an express messenger. This princess had been sick for nearly a year, and not really healthy through the past decade; it was, Princess Amalie said, her willpower which had kept her alive. The war, her worries for the King and the loss of the Prince of Prussia used up her remaining life force. Of all the King's sisters, she was the one most like him in mind and heart. She felt only comfortable among famous people, loved magnificence, adored the theatre and composed operas herself. She always wore jewelry and used make up - Lehndorff writes "white and red", but that's what he means - despite denying that she did. Above all she was gracious and always kept her word. Her people did not love her much and claimed that she disliked the small principality and her husbands' subjects. This princess had been born for a throne, just not for the status of a Margravine of Bayreuth.
Re: One admiring reader comments
Couldn't agree more on both counts.
Lehndorff: those are awesome character portraits, all three! But especially the two I didn't know about as people, just names. Thank you for continuing to share Lehndorff's gossipy sensationalism. He is *such* a treasure hoard of information.
Re: One admiring reader comments
He does, however, faithfully report this gem:
Juli 11th. I'm busy with reading until 5, and then I escort the Queen to the theatre. They play Amelie by Voltaire. It is a bit odd that while the poet has been arrested in Frankfurt, at the King's insistence, we keep being presented with his plays here, also at the King's insistence.
For "odd", substitute "Fritzian", Lehndorff. Your monarch sees no contradiction there at all. Hasn't he always insistent Voltaire is scum and he only cares about his genius? (It's not like he'll write "letters and greetings are no substitution for Voltaire, if one has had him in persona", oh no.)
Lehndorff's comments on the Voltaire implosion in general amount to "WTF? I mean, WTF?" in the polite Rokoko way, of course.
Re: One admiring reader comments
Not that I remember. I have a vague memory of EC being shocked by Algarotti's dissing of religion, but this was critically at Rheinsberg, when she and Fritz still lived together. Imagine how she'd react to Voltaire! I wouldn't be surprised if Fritz saw no need to inflict the boring pious woman on Voltaire.
For "odd", substitute "Fritzian", Lehndorff. Your monarch sees no contradiction there at all. Hasn't he always insistent Voltaire is scum and he only cares about his genius?
LOLOLOL
(It's not like he'll write "letters and greetings are no substitution for Voltaire, if one has had him in persona", oh no.)
It's hard when you're in love with someone you know is no damn good for you. And that goes in both directions. As they both seem to have been aware of it and suffered from the eternal tension between what their mind knew and their heart felt.
Lehndorff is the best
I really like the one of Marshal Keith too <3
Lehndorff continues to be the absolute awesomest <3
Re: Lehndorff is the best
I make the aquaintance of the famous Marshal Seckendorff, whom the King had had arrested on his country seat Meuselwitz and ordered to be brought to Magdeburg. Some think the King wants to have someone he can exchange for Field Marshal Moritz, others suspect Seckendorff to have conspired with the Austrians and thus of having been responsible for Hadik taking Berlin. I visit him as often as possible and listen to him with great entertainment. He's still the sly fox he's ever been. Right now, he's wrapped himself in the cloak of piety and has surrounded himself by prayer books. When one mentions his 86 years to him, he says: "I am alive, but not I, Christ lives in me."
Sometimes, however, he forgets hinmself, and then his old doubledealing, his greed, his scheming, in short, all that he's been famous for emerge. He can't forgive the King of having called him an ursurer in his memoirs. "At least," he claims, "I have not been one towards the King to whom I've given 1500 ducats without having gotten a single coin back. Or anything else." He's truly a living chronicle. His imprisonment, he bears with great calm, though he's insisting on his innocence. His manner of living is somewhat poor; he takes his meals from the cookshop and only drinks the wine his friends send him. For his age, he's well off; he can climb stairs without catching his breath. His face is somewhat ordinary, and his speech somewhat distorted through the loss of so many teeth.
See, Lehndorff, you're so good with his that it's doubly frustrating you got along so badly with the Katte clan and weren't interested in learning anything about Hans Herrmann.
Unrelatedly, because I never get tired quoting Lehndorff on the love of his life; in December of 1752, he's basically with him every day and still laments they're not together often enough:
December 6th. After supper, I go back to H. I wish I could always be with him.
December 7th. After dinner, I rush to my heavenly H. and stay there until he has to visit the Queen Mother.
Dember 8th. Dinner with H. How charming he is! The only thing that makes me unhappy is that I'll never have the courage to tell him just how much I love him!
I think he got the point, Lehndorff, considering earlier entries already mention you two tenderly embracing and what not. 1907! Editor: It was the age of Empfindsamkeit ("Sensibility"). Just Rokoko emo. Go with it, readers.
Re: Lehndorff is the best
I think he got the point, Lehndorff, considering earlier entries already mention you two tenderly embracing and what not. 1907! Editor: It was the age of Empfindsamkeit ("Sensibility"). Just Rokoko emo. Go with it, readers.
LOL forever. So many LOLs.
Re: Lehndorff is the best
(BTW: one reviewer says "better than Thiébault". I mean, not that I disagree, but I also think you can't really compare someone's memoirs, written many years after the fact and of course focused on the central character the memoirs are about, with a selection from someone's journals written without hindsight.
Re: Lehndorff is the best
Agree re Thiébault. It wouldn't occur to me to compare them.